When my brother and I were young, my mom would take us on Transportation Days.

    It goes like this: You can't take any means of transportation more than once. We would start from home, walking two blocks to the rail station. We'd take the train into the city center, then a bus, switching to the tram, then maybe a taxi. We always considered taking a horse carriage in the historic district, but we didn't like the way the horses were treated, so we never did. At the end of the day, we took the subway to our closest station, where Mom's friend was waiting to give us a ride home — our first car ride of the day.

    The good thing about Transportation Days is not only that Mom taught us how to get around. She was born to be multimodal(多方式的). She understood that depending on cars only was a failure of imagination and, above all, a failure of confidence — the product of a childhood not spent exploring subway tunnels.

    Once you learn the route map and step with certainty over the gap between the train and the platform, nothing is frightening anymore. New cities are just light-rail lines to be explored. And your personal car, if you have one, becomes just one more tool in the toolbox — and often an inadequate one, limiting both your mobility and your wallet.

    On Transportation Days, we might stop for lunch on Chestnut Street or buy a new book or toy, but the transportation was the point. First, it was exciting enough to watch the world speed by from the train window. As I got older, my mom helped me unlock the mysteries that would otherwise have paralyzed my first attempts to do it myself: How do I know where to get off? How do I know how much it costs? How do I know when I need tickets, and where to get them? What track, what line, which direction, where's the stop, and will I get wet when we go under the river?

    I'm writing this right now on an airplane, a means we didn't try on our Transportation Days and, we now know, the dirtiest and most polluting of them all. My flight routed me through Philadelphia. My multimodal mom met me for dinner in the airport. She took a train to meet me.

    A spaceship is flying to the sun in summer 2018! It will be the first-ever to a star and will be one of the biggest achievements space exploration (探险) in human history. The purpose is to study the sun's outer atmosphere and better understand how stars work.

The spaceship, with no man inside, will fly within 4 million miles of the sun's surface - right into the solar atmosphere, where the temperature is over 4,500℃. To protect the spaceship, it is covered with a 12cm-thick coating.

    The spaceship is called Parker Solar Probe and it is named after Eugene Parker, a professor from the University of Chicago. It's the first NASA spaceship to be named after a researcher who is still alive. In 1958, Eugene Parker first created the term “solar wind”-the sun sending out a flow of particles (颗粒) and energy.

    “The spaceship is going where it has never been before. It's very exciting that we'll finally get to know more about the solar wind. I'm sure there will be some surprises. There always are,” said Professor Parker.

    Parker calls it a heroic scientific space adventure, and he means that the spaceship will have to experience high temperatures and sun radiation (辐射). “The spaceship is going to do the hottest and fastest work. I love to call it the coolest hottest work under the sun,” said Scientist Fox Nasa.

    At Jacobs Creek Job Corps, students receive the skills needed to succeed in today's workforce—at no cost to them or their families!

    If you are looking for a better quality of life and are willing to dedicate yourself to our life changing program, Jacobs Creek Job Corps is the place for you!

    Everglades National Park (大沼泽地国家公园) is located in the state of Florida. It is the largest wilderness in the entire country and makes up 25% of the wetlands in the state. The park is home to several rare and endangered species. It is also the third largest national park in the US, after Death Valley and Yellowstone. Each year, about 1 million tourists visit the park. On a global level, it has been announced as a World Heritage Site.

    Unlike most other national parks, Everglades National Park was created to protect an ecosystem (生态系统) from damage. In 1947, President Harry Truman spoke at the official opening of Everglades National Park, saying the goal of creating the park was to protect forever a wild area that could never be replaced.

    10,000 different islands make up Everglades National Park. Each of these islands is lived by natural wildlife. The Everglades is home to about 15 species that are endangered. In addition, more than 350 bird species and 300 species of fresh and saltwater fish live within the park. The Everglades is also home to 40 species of mammals and 50 reptile species.

    There are many ways to explore the Everglades. Visitors can see alligators (短吻鳄) while hiking the Anhinga Trail. The Everglades is one of the only places on Earth where freshwater alligators and saltwater crocodiles live in the same area. Visitors using airboats are likely to see large groups of birds. Some visitors might enjoy riding bicycles through Shark Valley. Others may want to move slowly through waters where they can see insects and wildlife closely.

    According to experts, changes to the Everglades are becoming a danger to several different kinds of wildlife. They say it is a result of actions the US government began more than 50 years ago, and settlers began even earlier.

    Sunday Cushion Concerts

    Times: 10 am.&11am.

    Tickets: $5 per person

    The regular Sunday Cushion Concerts introduce children and their families to different instruments and styles of music. Bring your own cushions and secure places by booking in advance! Tickets are available to book over the phone 01865 325325.

    Christmas Show: The Elves (精灵) and the Shoemaker

    17-22 December 2019

    Tickets: $7 per person

    A poor shoemaker is down on his luck, but as Christmas draws close, a simple act of kindness inspires some magical elves to offer their services. Their amazing shoes attract customers from far and wide, earning the shoemaker fame and fortune! But how will he ever repay them?

    This classic story is brought to life for 3-to 7-year-olds and their families. Please book in advance to secure places! For other details, call us at 01865 325331.

    Moving Music

    Michaelmas Term Concert: 6 October 2019

    Times: 11:30am & 2pm

    Tickets: $5 per person

    Please reserve your places in advance, and pay on the door.

    This series of concerts is designed especially for people living with dementia(痴呆), and their families, friends, and carers, to enable them to enjoy a concert experience together and to help unlock memory and movement through the power of music. Concerts are held approximately every three months.

    For more details or to arrange access for transport: Phone 01865 286660.

    Turtle Key Opera

    Friday mornings in Trinity Term: April-June 2019

    Turtle Song is FREE to all participants. To sign up or for more information contact Turtle Key Arts on 01865 525265.

    Turtle Song is an opportunity to compose and sing your own songs with professional musicians. The group will meet weekly over a nine-week period between April and June 2019. The aims are to help people with all forms of dementia and people with memory problems.

    Friends always ask why I, a middle-aged woman with no athletic talent, travel to perilous places—the jungles of Thailand or Borneo, for example, where the water is often unsafe and the food risky; places with infectious diseases, poisonous snakes and the wildest animals; some places where the locals are just a few generations past headhunting.

    I never know how to answer. My travel decisions assumed a new gravity nine years ago after I suffered a stroke. To prevent another stroke, my doctors told me, I'd have to take dangerously high levels of blood thinner (血液稀释剂) for the rest of my life and any travel would be risky.

    I had to think about what was important to me: family, of course, and friends. But then what? No matter how many times I thought about it, no bucket list was complete without travel. Then I had to decide how I might manage the risk. I had to decide how lucky I felt.

    My return to travel after my stroke came in baby steps. The first real test of my travel courage came nine months after my stroke when I joined my husband, Jack, on a business trip to China. After we'd toured the remains of a Tang dynasty temple on a high mountain, Jack wanted to ride down on a toboggan (长雪橇).

    Before the stroke it would've seemed like fun. But now? I hesitated. My mental klaxon (高音喇叭) screamed warnings about the consequences of a cut, a fall, and a crash. Then, gaining confidence from who knows where, I lowered myself carefully into the toboggan, which marked my adventure travel comeback.

    In the years since then, I've traveled about twenty-five percent of the time. Through it all, my lucks held out—no deadly falls, no car accidents or serious infections. For me, adventure travel is a risk worth taking. Travel broadens my world and keeps me connected to nature. What's more, saying "yes" to travel keeps me connected to myself.